| Eeeee OOOooo | Friday, September 29, 2023 - 09:58 pm 
There have been changes made to improve the early war level experience, which I think is good.
One problem right now though is the weapon and ammo market. If a player wishes to re-arm themselves, it takes FOREVER for equipment to arrive.
For example, right now on FB, the bomber supply is 100-125 bombers produced a month on the planet. The current demand is 16,233 bombers. This can take 160+ game months for your order to go through - which is the equivalent of 26 real life days. Other goods hit this sort of delivery time as well. Expecting a player to produce their own goods isn't a great solution for any but the biggest players, in my opinion.
IDEA: Have a once a month opportunity to buy goods directly from a GM source. Perhaps not in extreme quantities, but in such a way that a new player doesn't need to wait a real life month for goods to be delivered. |
| Andy | Wednesday, October 4, 2023 - 11:01 am
The idea is that the market is the place to purchase all products.
if there are shortages, we would expect players to just build more corporations.
If 50 new corporations are added the situation will change.
you can also build one or two and contract the products to yourself.
GM adding products will make the market arbitrary.
why would someone build any corporation if the GM can deliver? |
| Eeeee OOOooo | Wednesday, October 4, 2023 - 05:43 pm
The problem is the market doesn't work well enough a lot of the time right now, and the issue is felt mostly with newer players. Maybe this can be limited to new players.
Currently some weapons take real life weeks for delivery, so if a players fails a war, they basically have to wait till next month to try again. This feels like a poor retention strategy. Almost every new player asking for war help in discord has lost or failed an attempt to climb a war level. They then are all in the "wait a month on weapons delivery" category.
New players in discord have posted in frustration that they "have ordered weapons many times and none arrive," not understanding how deep the backlog is.
I joined 6 weeks ago, and without realizing it, I've built 1/4 of all the bomber factories on Fearless Blue, and there's still only 130 produced per month with 20,000 demand for them. I have tried to help but there is still currently a 25.5 real life day wait for the item on the market. Who exactly is it that will build 50 more corporations to change the situation?
It's extremely common to see new players attempt wars in their first couple of logins. If you're a new player, fail your first war, and want to try again, are you going to wait almost a month in real time for weapons to arrive? I would have just quit and tried a different game. |
| Eeeee OOOooo | Wednesday, October 4, 2023 - 08:54 pm
To be clear, I do understand your point.
The markets are the least robust and least reliable I've seen since 2008. I just wonder what the impact on new players might be, and expecting them to supply themselves for things that are considered small scale isn't reasonable.
I've never ever self-supplied weapons before, and I've fought in as many wars and player wars as anyone. It's not that I can't, it's that the markets used to work. They are so small that one player massively impacts them now. I don't mind having to supply myself, but my point is that the market is such that I'm having to do something I've never needed to do before. |
| Andy | Friday, October 6, 2023 - 10:01 am
The huge shortages we have for quite some time are a problem.
Shortages are now smaller and the situation is improving.
check the utilization page and you see a lot of green.
we will continue to support a more stable market and reduce shortages.
Changes must be small or the market can turn green and prices will plumet.
I think that when some products have smaller shortages and even turn to positive, C3 countries, by design, will close some corporations and replace them by ones producing defense products and products that are in short supply. |
| Daniel Iceling | Friday, October 6, 2023 - 02:31 pm
Andy,
Another way to reduce shortages would be to allow C3 countries to have an additional State corporation. Currently, as best I can tell, C3 countries are limited to a maximum of 21 State Corporations, this leaves many of them with a lot of unemployed people. Making them consume far more than they produce, resulting in global shortages. |
| Andy | Friday, October 6, 2023 - 04:13 pm
It is a way.
it used to be 19.
Problem is, it is irreversible.
and it is a major change across the board. adding thousands of corporations.
At this stage, many products will go into surplus. |
| Eeeee OOOooo | Friday, October 6, 2023 - 04:25 pm
Sounds good.
My suggestion comes from a place of hearing and watching new players struggle with this aspect.
That said, they may always struggle in some way, and you have been working on reducing shortages, which is ultimately the main issue.
I just see the problem being that the markets for some things are too small. Realistic? Perhaps. But seemingly not flexible enough to accommodate likely gameplay easily for some newer accounts. This is one area I don't mind less realism. I'm looking forward to seeing the continued improvements you're making.
Thanks Andy. |
| Andy | Saturday, October 7, 2023 - 09:37 am
do you also see that shortages are becoming smaller?
or is it my wishful thinking.
I agree that this is difficult, mainly for new players.
I will do more but we will probably start hearing that some product prices are declining. |
| Eeeee OOOooo | Saturday, October 7, 2023 - 06:44 pm
I see that shortages in some goods are smaller. I've noticed this more with high tech, industrial etc goods, and less with weapons and ammo specifically.
Maybe things are better with weapons and ammo, but I haven't felt significant improvements. If you're making changes, I probably will feel them more over time than in an instant.
It's also hard to judge those products. Perhaps the shortage is smaller because there are less orders than usual. Some shortages are so massive it's hard to notice improvements. There are many weapon and ammo types haha.
Of current orders I've made, I still have many where I've been waiting over a week to fill (on White Giant: 10 real life days for missile interceptors, 9+ for armored vehicle and anti-aircraft missiles etc). I've been waiting 16+ days on forts as well. Again, I'm not worried about my own supply, just the supply in general.
The markets are small, which creates the challenge you speak of - when demand dries up, prices may crash. Maybe the markets will remain or settle at a small size. |
| Andy | Sunday, October 8, 2023 - 09:53 am
We see oversupply in some products.
C3 countries, in such market situation, are quickly closing corporations and build new ones that produce products that are in severe shortage.
such adjustments take some time to take effect but this process, we think, is on going. |
